Simply Sidetracked as Usual!

Yes I am doing a bang up job of keeping myself on track here ladies and gents! Confession time right off the bat, nope didn’t get that homework done at ALL!!! Didn’t even find the book to start it……I know I am so bad. How am I going to actually write a novel if I can even keep myself moving to complete the tasks I ask of myself? Good question but I still have blind utter belief in the impossible.


Of course that could just be my own personal insanity talking or taking over again……shhhh I won’t tell if you promise not to!

Anyway instead of actually doing something productive towards my book I got caught up in another new project, I know why do I even do this to my loved ones. So any who….I started to work on my Family tree flowing from me out through all 4 grandparents and After being like an addict for 30 hours straight on Ancestry.com (yes it’s called Hyper focus….gotta love ADHD), I actually made a very nice dent on my very impressive family tree. I have known since I was a little girl that yes my princess fantasies come from deep within my own psyche, due to that long forgotten Royal Irish blood that runs rampant through my crazy red headed brain! Now there seems to be a bit coming from a couple other countries too, sweet!!!!

But the best part is that my love of Ireland is playing out in my Heritage right before my eyes, I mean yes there are other nationalities taking up a corner of my cultural make-up, but it seems a majority of my heritage does in fact come from that beautiful Emerald Isle that I fell in love with at my Grandfathers knee as a child. He may have even been correct in the fact that there may be just a bit of Fairy blood in this girl…..it certainly seems to have come through to my darling daughter as well!

So in a roundabout way I may be off track for the book but it’s not terribly off track as *cough cough* anyone who knows me knows that the themes of Irish mythology, Fairies, and probably even the beautiful Island itself with come to play a part in my stories if not in my first book in a subsequent book to follow.

Okay, it’s late and now I need to go convince my Hubby it’s time for a trip back my ‘homeland’ again. I love being American but my heart is definitely Irish too!

Following Footsteps of Genius......found unexpetedly!

So I have already not kept my promise. It’s been many days since my last post. I could give a myriad of excuses but the reality is I just didn’t get it done. I have been doing a bit of reading. I just finished up Gena Showalter’s, Into the Dark. Which is actually 3 books in one. Me likey a lot! I could zip though the stories and get my fix for the series’ that I have been craving more of. Loved finding out how LOTU got started with the story of Greyon and Kadence. But OMG make me cry Gena!!!! Loved it. Then of course there was a trip back to Atlantis which I have been aching for…..finally getting to see what becomes of Nola and Zane. I think these two walked away with my heart! Then you take us on side trip with a couple of God’s who get soooo naughty!!! Yummy!



However my favorite part of the book was when you got done with those three wonderful stories Gena had a special surprise for her readers. It was like I had died and gone to heaven. There in my hands were the answers to the problems plaguing me! All I had to do was read a conversation between two of my favorite authors Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. Here I am throwing out pages and pages of the book I am desperately trying to write because it’s just not right. Sweet to find out that is probably completely normal in this process. I also love that I am not only person on the planet with a host of people living in her head! Who yell at me, LOL!


Now I have come to the realization that I cannot fight this book like I have been. I can’t make it fit a preconceived mold that I decided upon. I was thinking that I wanted to make this novel a young adult genre, and thought at first that my character was taking me there but as I start to write things go from PG-13 to R rather quickly in my mind. Then I start to go on a tangent in my own brain about just what defines the difference of PG-13 vs R these days. I mean today’s teenagers are certainly more versed than I was at their age and damn I thought I knew a lot! The words certainly seem to be more acceptable especially in teen use and in print. I hear and read things today that I would never have found in the things I was reading in high school.


That of course sends me into the panic of dialogue. If I write for a younger audience how do I make my characters’ sound young and fresh, without *sigh* using slang from my own youth that is *groan* out dated. (Yes I am just recently realizing that I am fast approaching middle aged. I console myself with joy of taunting those I love that are already there with the fact that they ARE there. I know that Karma’s a bitch though and she will get me back, I have younger friends and my turn is coming, but I’ll have fun for a couple of years yet!) Okay back on track now Ms. Laney, no wonder we can’t get this book written!


So I bought the Grammer for Dummies workbook, I desperately need to brush up on my basics which I am sure is quite evident in this blog. I know my demons they are especially fragments and run-ons. Plus brushing up on the rest with just make me a better writer overall. Just because the creative part of the process comes fairly easily for me because of the host of ideas that seem to live inside my brain, as well as the fact that I have the weirdest and freakiest dreams, and see the world from a point of view that leaves many people scratching their heads may help with that a bit. However, that doesn’t mean that the technical side of writing flows as easily from my fingertips especially not all these years later after school. And well let’s face it I have been working on my ABC’s, colors, shapes, and teaching my two children the very building blocks to learning, which makes my brain about the state of Mush. I can sing along to almost every Disney preschool show, the Sprout channel, and a variety of other childhood favorites. Thankfully I was able to keep a few of those that make me shudder out of my home. Such as Sponge Bob and the Teletubbies…..unfortunately Barney did make it in. That damn purple Dinosaur has a way of drawing you in and suddenly your tapping your toes to the music……uh I mean wishing for the show to end. Anyway there I go off topic AGAIN. My sweet hubby would point out that it’s just my beautiful ADHD nature rearing it’s lovely head.


So where were we………….(Yeah I did have to scroll up to see)……. oh yeah the workbook. So I think my goal will be an assignment for myself. To read and complete the exercises for chapter 1 of the workbook, and……sorry got side tracked again. Hubby needed me to tell him which of my beloved books to donate and which to keep. I would love to keep every book I read but let’s face it my house simply isn’t big enough right now. So one I read them I pass them on for other’s to fall in love with. So my homework assignment for tomorrow, no really I will try to actually accomplish this! Chapter 1 and the exercises that go with it, I believe it’s verbs but it’s been a while since I looked at it. I know I know….bad Lainey. Ok time for me to quit blathering I need to go color with my daughter, yes I love to color. I even have my own crayons….what you gonna laugh at me.

Welcome.......

I want to write a book. That's a great first step wouldn't you say. Knowing what you want to accomplish seems to help get things going. However, is that just a little to simple of a statement? Does it really get across what I want to accomplish? If I can't even write a statement that tells you what I want to do how will I ever find success. Let's see if we can't fix that shall we.

I want to write and publish a successful book. Hey now I like the sound of that much better. It shows that I am not willing to just sit down and put a bunch of words together and call it good. Yet it also doesn't sound asinine or imply that I am looking to be rich and famous. Let's face it very few authors have the luck to make it big and become super big time millionaires as writers. Writing is about the passion for words and stories, for creating a playground for the mind. It could still use some work, what do you think? Nah, oh I don't know.

So in case you haven't figured it out yet, I am Lainey Jo Byrne. And yes I am an aspiring author who is taking the beginning steps to writing her first novel. So why the hell am I also writing a blog about it? Well I have a tendency to not complete projects and I thought maybe this way I could keep myself on track. I figure I need to work on the whole accountability thing. And well I may have a bit of an issue with motivation too. You could count the number of projects I have completed on.....OK let's face it I can't say that I have successfully completed any project. I have tried to say I successfully birthed two children but people are so quick to point out that I sort of didn't have a choice in those, so they supposedly don't count.

Anyway, this blog will be me letting any readers I do get on my journey of writing that first book. Plus with my ADHD loveliness God only knows what other topics I'll decide to discuss with you LOL! I am a very emotional person, some may say I am even fueled or driven by those emotions and I tend to be a bit scattered. I am nothing if not passionate in all I do.
So dear readers I want to say hello and welcome to my blog. A place that will probably give you glimpses of my brain (could get scary......@my brother if he ever does read this: YES I DO HAVE A BRAIN! and I have an MRI to prove snoot. Sorry I get off track a lot) and maybe some glimpses of my soul (man I hope I have one of those.....depends on who you ask these days!). Most of all I hope you find something of interest, something funny, or that you just find that you have to keep reading because it's like a train wreck...you desperately want to look a way but somewhere inside you a morbid curiosity grips you and freezes your eyes on the unfolding horror. I'll take you no matter what brings you.........